Phoenix mission

HypersonicMan · #1 (**permalink**) 28-February-2005, 11:43 PM

There's a good chance I may have the opportunity to work on the Phoenix mission starting this summer. I'm pretty jazzed. It's going to be an exciting mission!

Nicolas · #2 (**permalink**) 01-March-2005, 12:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HypersonicMan

There's a good chance I may have the opportunity to work on the Phoenix mission starting this summer. I'm pretty jazzed. It's going to be an exciting mission!

You'll be working on a mars mission and you're allowed full rover resources?

Seriously, I hope you will be allowed to work on it! (then we'll have our man "in", could be useful!)

=D>

HypersonicMan · #3 (**permalink**) 01-March-2005, 12:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nicolas

Quote:

Originally Posted by HypersonicMan

There's a good chance I may have the opportunity to work on the Phoenix mission starting this summer. I'm pretty jazzed. It's going to be an exciting mission!

You'll be working on a mars mission and you're allowed full rover resources?

Seriously, I hope you will be allowed to work on it! (then we'll have our man "in", could be useful!)

=D>

Heheh, I didn't even realize how that sounded when I wrote it.

Well, I'm pretty sure I'll be involved somehow, I'm not sure how. I'm just getting ready to start a PhD program at the University of Arizona, and just after I finish course work Phoenix is scheduled for launch. I'm hoping to get a dissertation out of some of the data coming back. At the moment I'm leaning towards something exobiology oriented

Bamf · #4 (**permalink**) 01-March-2005, 05:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nicolas

Seriously, I hope you will be allowed to work on it! (then we'll have our man "in", could be useful!)

=D>

What am I, chopped liver?

tlbs101 · #5 (**permalink**) 01-March-2005, 02:45 PM

That's great! I would be jealous if you get to work on that project.

-------
Bamf -- your post indicates you have responsibilities to JPL. Is this true, and if so, what do you do?

ToSeek · #6 (**permalink**) 01-March-2005, 03:54 PM

Bamf is (or was - his responsibilities may have changed by now) the software manager at Arizona State for the THEMIS instrument on Mars Odyssey.

lyford · #7 (**permalink**) 01-March-2005, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ToSeek

Bamf is (or was - his responsibilities may have changed by now) the software manager at Arizona State for the THEMIS instrument on Mars Odyssey.

I believe "Thorn In Hoagland's Side" is part of his job description as well.

He also has the distinct honor (in the august company of our own ToSeek) of having a screen name that can be used as a verb:

Quote:

It is Laney and Hoagland's assertion that ASU's Gorelick "bamf'ed" or redirected Laney to the "real" Cydonia image in order to send up a red flag that THEMIS' information was being purposefully flawed.

Ironic J'accuse Dept.:(from the linked article)

Quote:

"Science, if you do it right, does not lie," says Hoagland.

edited for clarity and to add quote

aldo12xu · #8 (**permalink**) 01-March-2005, 05:08 PM

Hey Bamf, Hypersonic and any other present or future JPL employees, how about slipping in the suggestion to land Phoenix on the Elysium pack ice instead of the polar region 8) Is Phoenix able to drill down into the soil?

Nicolas · #9 (**permalink**) 01-March-2005, 05:45 PM

Hi Bamf! Cool to hear you're working on space missions too! I don't recall any post of you, so I didn't know about it. 2 men "in" is better than one!

8) (And then there's sts60, and I suppose others as well).

kg034 · #10 (**permalink**) 01-March-2005, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bamf

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nicolas

Seriously, I hope you will be allowed to work on it! (then we'll have our man "in", could be useful!)

=D>

What am I, chopped liver?

hehe...

...maybe thats what Hoagie wants you to be....I think you had a bit too much fun with him over Cydonia back in....what was it....2001? Intentional or not, it produced one of the most brilliant moments of Hoagie's self-relevation....I still remember him screaming: "Hold her steady as she goes!!!", signing off as the Captain. Even though I guess he forgot to put in James T. Kirk there, I should definitely add as a Captain of a ship of fools

(do I get banned for using such a word here?)

Anyhow, I just wanted to point out that people do remember bamf

HypersonicMan · #11 (**permalink**) 02-March-2005, 12:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aldo12xu

Hey Bamf, Hypersonic and any other present or future JPL employees, how about slipping in the suggestion to land Phoenix on the Elysium pack ice instead of the polar region 8) Is Phoenix able to drill down into the soil?

Well it just so happens that the landing site selection process is going to start in the summer about the time I arrive at LPL (the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, part of U of A), so I'll mention it :wink: However, I think it's likely to be in a location in the north polar region that's very high in water ice content.

ToSeek · #12 (**permalink**) 03-June-2005, 02:14 PM

Quote:

NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission Gets Thumbs up for 2007 Launch

NASA has given the green light to a project to put a long-armed lander onto the icy ground of the far-northern martian plains. NASA's Phoenix lander is designed to examine the site for potential habitats for water ice and to look for possible indicators of life, past or present.

Today's announcement allows the Phoenix mission to proceed with preparing the spacecraft for launch in August 2007. This major milestone followed a critical review of the project's planning progress and preliminary design since its selection in 2003.

Phoenix is the first project in NASA's Mars Scout Program of competitively selected missions. Scouts are innovative and relatively low-cost complements to the core missions of the agency's Mars exploration program.

"The Phoenix Mission explores new territory in the northern plains of Mars analogous to the permafrost regions on Earth," said the project's principal investigator, Dr. Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "NASA's confirmation supports this project and may eventually lead to discoveries relating to life on our neighboring planet."

Phoenix is a stationary lander. It has a robotic arm to dig down to the martian ice layer and deliver samples to sophisticated analytical instruments on the lander's deck. It is specifically designed to measure volatiles, such as water and organic molecules, in the northern polar region of Mars. In 2002, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter found evidence of ice-rich soil very near the surface in the arctic regions.

Like its namesake, Phoenix rises from ashes, carrying the legacies of two earlier attempts to explore Mars. The 2001 Mars Surveyor lander, administratively mothballed in 2000, is being resurrected for Phoenix. Many of the scientific instruments for Phoenix were built or designed for that mission or the unsuccessful Mars Polar Lander in 1999.

"The Phoenix team's quick response to the Odyssey discoveries and the cost-saving adaptation of earlier missions' technology are just the kind of flexibility the Mars Scout Program seeks to elicit," said NASA's Mars Exploration Program Director, Doug McCuistion.

"Phoenix revives pieces of past missions in order to take NASA's Mars exploration into an exciting future," said NASA's Director, Solar System Division, Science Mission Directorate, Dr. Andrew Dantzler.

The cost of the Phoenix mission is $386 million, which includes the cost of launch. The partnership developing the Phoenix mission includes the University of Arizona; NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver; and the Canadian Space Agency, which is providing weather-monitoring instruments.

"The confirmation review is an important step for all major NASA missions," said JPL's Barry Goldstein, project manager for Phoenix. "This approval essentially confirms NASA's confidence that the spacecraft and science instruments will be successfully built and launched, and that once the lander is on Mars, the science objectives can be successfully achieved."

Much work lies ahead. Team members will assemble and test every subsystem on the spacecraft and science payload to show they comply with design requirements. Other tasks include selecting a landing site, which should be aided by data provided by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launching in August, and preparing to operate the spacecraft after launch.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages Phoenix for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html . For information about the Phoenix Mission to Mars on the Web, visit http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu

ToSeek · #13 (**permalink**) 05-April-2006, 05:45 PM

Phoenix Mars Lander: Getting Down and Dirty On the Red Planet

Quote:

The next Mars lander is undergoing assembly and testing, being readied for departure next year to explore the martian arctic. This probe is equipped to dig deep, quite literally, into an ongoing mystery—the history of water on Mars and the planet’s potential as an extraterrestrial address for life.

NASA’s Phoenix Mars mission is the first in the space agency’s Scout series, a class of spacecraft designed to be inventive but relatively low-cost in furthering Mars exploration.

Phoenix is headed for liftoff in August 2007, cruise across the vacuum void for 10 months and set itself down on the red planet in late May 2008. This time there’s no bouncing to full-stop on air bags. It will come to a soft touchdown using controlled thrusters.

VenusROVER · #14 (**permalink**) 05-April-2006, 11:02 PM

The thing will fail on landing

Hamlet · #15 (**permalink**) 05-April-2006, 11:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VenusROVER

The thing will fail on landing

What leads you to that conclusion?

antoniseb · #16 (**permalink**) 05-April-2006, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VenusROVER

The thing will fail on landing

For someone really pushing for accelerated exploration, you seem pretty pessimistic about this one.

VenusROVER · #17 (**permalink**) 05-April-2006, 11:44 PM

its kinda a stupid mission

Hamlet · #18 (**permalink**) 05-April-2006, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VenusROVER

its kinda a stupid mission

Care to expound on this? This is not much of a reason.

VenusROVER · #19 (**permalink**) 05-April-2006, 11:49 PM

All it does is stand in the same place

Lord Jubjub · #20 (**permalink**) 06-April-2006, 12:21 AM

If you land in an interesting enough place, you don't need to go anywhere else.

Just as long as all agree to use the same measuring system.